Alliance Israelite Universelle establishes Mikveh Israel, an agricultural school near Jaffa.

Rabbi Israel Hildesheimer (1820-1899), leader of the German Orthodox Jewry, founds the "Jüdische Presse" ("Jewish Press"), a weekly, published in Berlin. From its outset the paper supports settlement in Palestine.

Moses Leib Lilienblum (1820-1910), Hebrew writer, political journalist and leader of Hibbat Zion, writes "Kehal Refaim" ("The Community of the Dead"), a political satire in which he calls for the normalization of Jewish life through participation in agricultural labor, commerce and industry.

Moshe Sachs dies, content in the knowledge that his lifelong dream is beginning to take shape with the establishment of the Mikveh Israel agricultural school.

Rabbi Yaakov Reines (1839-1915), an esteemed Torah scholar also knowledgeable in secular studies, corresponds with Rabbi Kalisher, affirming his support of Zionism and the need for a national solution to the Jewish problem.

The Jews of Bavaria are accorded full rights. Jews become emancipated in all territories of the new German Empire. In reality, the Jews are excluded from the officer corps, major administrative posts, foreign service and teaching positions below the university level with few exceptions.

The first modern Russian pogrom takes place in Odessa, instigated mainly by Greek merchants out of commercial rivalry.

A higher school for the scientific study of Judaism (Hochschule für die Wissenschaft des Judentums) is established in Berlin. It is the first rabbinical seminary to train reform rabbis. One of the first teachers is Abraham Geiger.

Israel Hildesheimer establishes the "Palästina Verein" whose object it is to raise the educational and vocational standards of the Jews of Jerusalem.

The Rumbach Synagogue in Budapest is opened.

Rabbi Yoseph Natonek creates the first Zionist newspaper “Das einige Israel,” in German. Among the issues he discusses is the need for a Jewish homeland in light of the persecution of Jews in Romania.

Israel Hildesheimer founds a seminary for the training of Orthodox rabbis in Berlin.

Herman Cohen (1842-1918), German philosopher, is appointed instructor in philosophy at the Marburg University where he establishes the Marburg school of neo-Kantian philosophy.

Mendele Mocher Seforim, Russian Yiddish and Hebrew writer, writes "The Nag, Or Against Cruelty to Animals", a popular allegory on the persecution of Jews in Czarist Russia and an indictment of the Haskalah attitude that if the Jew europeanizes himself, he will gain acceptance in society.

The stock-market crash in Vienna unleashes anti-Jewish hostilities. The chief sources are artisans and clerical-conservatives.

Rabbi Akiva Yosef Schlesinger (1838-1922) publishes a plan for the organization of the Jewish people based on democratic principles. It is based on an orderly, military model. Eretz Israel is to be the Jewish homeland, with Hebrew as the national language.

Camille Pissarro (1830-1903), born into a Sefardi family from Bordeaux, becomes a founder and leader of Impressionism. He teaches Paul Cézanne and Paul Gauguin. Pissarro is regarded as the first major Jewish painter, although he painted not a single Jewish subject.

Rabbi Judah Alkalai immigrates to the Holy Land and settles in Jaffa.

Chaim Weizmann is born.

Theodor Herzl leaves the Realschule on February 4.

Herzl writes the poem "We shall not go to Canossa."

Joseph Deckert, a Viennese clergyman, publishes an account of an alleged ritual murder. Rabbi Joseph Samuel Bloch (1850-1923) takes legal action against him, and Deckert is found guilty of slander.

Moses Montefiore makes his seventh and final pilgrimage to Eretz Israel, at the age of ninety-one. He has the pleasure of seeing tenants move in to the new addition to Mishkenot Sha’ananim, planned a decade earlier.

Charles Warren speaks of the objective of a Jewish principality in Palestine either under the sovereignty of the Sultan or - in case of the partition of Turkey - as an independent kingdom protected by the Great Powers.

Theodor Herzl attends the "Evangelische Gymnasium" (Protestant High School).
From Herzl's Autobiographical Sketch (1898)

Jews in the Ottoman Empire are granted equal rights. There are four Jewish representatives in the parliament.

Abraham Goldfaden (1840-1908) initiates the professional Yiddish theatre.

David Meir Gutmann (1827-1894) of Hungary establishes the Society for the Redemption and Working of the Land, unique in its adherence to traditional Orthodoxy and in its demand for Jewish labor.

George Eliot (1819-1880) publishes her novel "Daniel Deronda", which reveals her deep understanding of Judaism and a great sympathy towards the Jewish people and their aspirations. She expresses clearly the idea of the redemption of the Jews, and rejects assimilation as a solution to the Jewish problem.

In February Herzl's sister Pauline falls sick with typhoid fever and dies after a few days. Herzl never forgets his sister and guards every keepsake of hers like a sacred relic. His novel "Altneuland" is dedicated to her memory and his father's, and it is his sisters character which is reproduced in Miriam.

A week after Pauline's death the family moves to Vienna and settles in the Leopoldstadt, the district with the highest concentration of Jews in the city.

In June, Herzl returns for a short time to Budapest to finish his matriculation exams.

In fall Herzl enrolls as a law student at the Vienna University and becomes member of the "Akademische Lesehalle", a non-partisan student cultural association.

Herzl outlines his comedy "Die Ritter vom Gemeinplatz" - "The Knights of the Platitude", a satire against men of contentless, hypocritical and treacherous phrases.

From Herzl's Autobiographical Sketch (1898)

Foundation of Petah Tikvah. It is the first new agricultural Jewish settlement. The founders, all of whom are Orthodox Jews, are Yehoshua Stampfer and David Meir Gutmann (1827-1894) and Rabbi Yoel Moshe Solomon (1838-1912) of Jerusalem.

Pious Settlers from Safed found “Gei Oni” (“Valley of My Strength”), an agricultural settlement in northern Eretz Yisrael on the slopes of Mt. Canaan. The settlers lack funds, agricultural know-how and are harassed by their Arab neighbors. After two years of persistent work the settlement is abandoned, to be reestablished in 1882 under the name “Rosh Pinna”

Adolf Stöcker founds the Christian Social Workers' Party in Germany. He sees himself as "the leader of the Jew baiters" and charges the Jews with absorbing Germany's wealth while at the same time promoting a Marxist revolution.

Heinrich von Treitschke (1834-1896), a German historian, justifies German antisemitism He coins the slogan "The Jews are our misfortune" - "Die Juden sind unser Unglück". antisemitism acquires a cloak of respectability.

Wilhelm Marr (1818-1904), German antisemitic agitator, coins the term "Antisemite". He founds the "League of Anti-Semites", the first attempt to organize a popular political movement founded on antisemitism